Simplified puttanesca

A few weeks ago, while I was alone at home, I cooked a spaghetti alla puttanesca, the first in a long time. I keep it simple: I don't add anchovies but sardines and I only put olives because I did not have capers. It was still delicious. I showed it to Wolfie via Facetime. As you may know, Wolfie loves olives just as much as I do. So he asked me to cook some for when he got back. So I made another batch of puttanesca, but without the sardines, so my vegetarian wife could eat it. And also because my son is not too keen on sardines. It was not as flavoursome, but he loved it anyway. Veggie Carrie, who is less fond of olives, less so. But all the same, it's a new family classic. Or father and son classic: simplified puttanesca. Although from what I read, this is pretty close to the original Neapolitan version, which is itself very simple.

Vesuvio Souvenir

For our wedding anniversary, my wife and I went to Avanti, a little Italian restaurant in the little town of Wallingford. It was a lovely evening and Avanti was the perfect place to celebrate. Like many Italian restaurants, it had many little things that were used as part of the décor. Such as this bottle of what I assume was limoncello, in the shape of Italy and of a booth, called "Vesuvio Souvenir", so probably bought somewhere near Mount Vesuvius. I thought it was funny, this delicate carved bottle associated with a volcano. Anyway, we didn't drink limoncello after the meal, I'm not a big fan of it anyway, but for a moment I almost felt like I was back in Italy. My wife and I agree that we ought to visit it one day.

Falling into Mount Vesuvius

 Here's a bit of silly news that I heard about recently which discouraged me about mankind. You may not know about it, but I kinda like volcanoes, as long as they don't erupt and that we keep at a safe distance. My brothers and I were fascinated by them as children, PJ was borderline obsessed about volcanoes. So I have always been curious about seeing the legendary ones, such as Mount Vesuvius. Is there a volcano more famous than this one? Well, recently, an American tourist fell into it trying to take a selfie. I mean, really? That's all some people can think about? Taking a selfie next to nature's most terrible creation? Part of me thinks if Mount Vesuvius had to erupt again, now would be a good time. If you are superstitious, forget what I just said.

Mozartian crimes

Tomorrow is the 230th anniversary of the premiere of Cosi fan tutte. Maybe Mozart's best opera, certainly his most cynical. I will properly celebrate tomorrow of course, and the next day is Mozart's birthday, so another excuse to blog about it and share my love for the music. It may be a coincidence, but I am reading at the moment... Cosi Fan Tutti, by (British) crim writer Michael Dibdin. I found this novel at total random, saww the title and knew I had to have it. So far so good, although I find ti a bit light for my liking. I quite enjoy, if nothing else, the connections with Mozart: like the opera, the novel is set in Naples and the B plot involves a similar scheme of fooling two people into cheating. The difference is that the victims of this scheme are two Neapolitan thugs instead of two ladies, hence the gender switch in the title, tutti instead of tutte.

Chercher la puttanesca

J'y ai pensé aujourd'hui: ça fait un bail que je n'ai pas blogué sur la puttanesca, ça fait aussi longtemps (mais quand même moins longtemps) que je n'ai pas mangé de puttanesca. Cette photo date de la dernière fois où j'en ai fait une. Je la fait plutôt à la philistine: je mets d'habitude des sardines plutôt que des anchois. Et les pâtes qui accompagnent la sauce sont rarement des spaghetti (oui, je ne mets pas de s à spaghetti, c'est déjà un pluriel, bon). Je songe donc à en manger dans un futur proche. Mais comme je suis un peu vegge, je songe, au lieu d'en faire une philistine, d'aller m'en commander une dans le meilleur restaurant italien que je puisse trouver. Je vais me lancer en quête de la meilleure puttanesca au monde. Rien que ça.Je pars parfois dans des quêtes gastronomiques comme ça: le meilleur hamburger, les meilleurs fish and chips, le meilleur pouding chômeur, etc. Cette fois, ce sera la puttanesca. J'irai dans les bordels napolitains, s'il le faut (non c'est pas vrai). Ou en tout cas, je pourrais saisir l'occasion pour enfin revoir l'Italie.

Ai-je brûlé la photo du mois?

Je me demande si je n'ai pas fait une gaffe monumentale hier en publiant cette photo du Musée de l'histoire naturelle. Parce que la photo du mois a pour thème "le flou et la vie" et que cette image collait bien au thème: les corps sont flous et, bien que morts, embaumés par la lave du Vésuve, comme immortalisés. Donc: me suis-je fourré? J'avais comme un soupçon quand je tapais le billet, mais là je me rappelles que la date approche et j'ai vraiment pas grand-chose comme photos, rien en tout cas d'aussi bon.

Dreaming of a volcanic holiday

This picture was taken in the Natural History Museum of London. "A Londra, è vero". But it is of Italy I am thinking about. My wife and her friend (the mother of the girl who has Buffy) are planning to go on holidays and they are seriously considering Italy, maybe Naples. This is where of course Mount Vesuvius is and thus where the ruins of Pompeii are, where these remains have been taken (I think). My wife and I are planning to go on another holiday in a different place, but I have been wanting to go back to Italy in ages and I'd love to try Naples, for many reasons. Because I want to exercise my Italian and improve it, and Naples would be fitting, as I have been told at least once that I have a Neapolitan accent. But it is because of the ruins especially. Because it would be nice to go there before the Vesuvius bursts again (hey, it will happen one day). Because once in my life I want to be near a volcano. There is something beautiful about them that the aura of menace only enhances. And I think it enhances as well, or makes us more conscious of, the beauty of the place itself, of Naples and Italy itself. Even in the above picture, which my wife didn't like one bit and thought it was both scary and sad, there is something like a sinister aesthetic to it. Anyway, I'd love to spend some time near Mount Vesuvius, while it is still sleeping. So I hope they pick up another place.

Question existentielle (192)

Je sais, j'ai posé la 191e récemment. Mais celle-ci est particulièrement originale et d'une importance capitale:

-Dans quel ordre les saveurs de la crème glacée napolitaine devraient-elles être?

Italian voice

Sometimes the smallest thing can make your day. It happened to me yesterday, when I had a bit of a chat with a colleague. She studied Italian for years and is very good at it and she knows a bit of French, she wants to improve it, so she speaks to me in French. I try to answer with my very limited Italian, mixed with some French and English when I can't find the words, which is very often. Anyway, I couldn't say much, so I used my usual line: "Io parlo bene italiano ma non capisco una sola parola" (I speak Italian very well, but cannot understand a single word). She was quite impressed and said "but you've got a Neapolitan accent". It is strange, as I have never been anywhere near Naples and most of my Italian friends were from the North. Maybe I got it from all that time spent listening to opera. I said it before, it seems that I am gifted for Italian, so it is a shame that I never learned it properly. But to know that I could get an authentic accent (or somewhat authentic anyway) made me feel quite happy.